Artist in Residence Program

The last day and a half I've been filling out an application to be the Artist in Residence for a society. That society shall remain nameless until I know whether I have been accepted or not, but I have high hopes. Perhaps this is to be my next big thing. The position focuses on reclaimed materials, which is perfect because I love up-cycling and do it quite often.

Filling out my application and writing my artist's statement has gotten me to thinking, It has been a while since I last filled out paperwork quite like that and I am inspired to file paperwork for grants. Makes me wonder if I have just been going about this whole being an artist ... thing with the wrong mindset and I just have to take the time to apply for grants (government, institution, and private) instead of trying to sell individual pieces. Perhaps I should be thinking commission work more than piecemeal.

On the other hand, I really like making pieces in my own way and at my own pace. On the third hand (man I wish I had more than 2 hands sometimes ... anyway), I sometimes need a bit of a push to get things going and really just need to get motivated by a deadline more than my own force of will. Research time!

A Walk Through the Forest of Dreams

A Walk Through the Forest of Dreams

Jessie Night

2010

Collage (paper, ribbon, glue)

This piece is a collage made from reused paper and ribbon scraps on a reclaimed cardboard backing, created in 2009 as a commentary on the whimsy of the mundane and the mystery of dreams. This piece is a portrait of a dream I had, very surreal and lucid. In my dream I was walking through a forest looking for the ocean, which I could hear and catch glimpses of, but could not get any closer to. As I was walking through the forest, I came upon some old ruins, but could not tell what had been there before. A flower grew out of the ruins, growing very fast and very large. Persephone, the greek goddess of spring, came out of the flower and offered to trade me her pomegranate for my jewelry. When I gave her my necklace, the necklace turned into a ribbon and the goddess turned into a dove saying "there's no time" as she flew away into the forest, but the forest had turned into a painting of a forest and I could not follow. My dream stuck with me for days and I finally had to get it out through art. I chose collage because it seemed to be the best way for me to express the jumble of ideas and emotions that happened in my dream.

Each element of my dream is represented twice in the piece to give the impression of reiteration and the dual nature of many of the elements. The forest is represented by pictures of a deep and dark forest and a colorized image of branches over top, depicting the changing light and aura of the setting. The ocean I was looking for is shown in strips running vertically across the piece to represent the fact that I could see it and hear it, but could not reach the ocean and my goal was surpassed by circumstances. The ruins are shown in the red and brown stones in the lower left hand corner, carved long ago and covered with lichen and plants, yet resilient and persistent. The rapid growing flower is represented by the black orchid and the close up of the purple flower, small to large, dark to light, ever changing, bringing change. Persephone is represented twice, once as the woman and once as the dove sitting on the pomegranate, her traditional fruit from legend. The locket in the lower left hand corner was placed over the stones because it belonged to that world; the ribbon at the top is covering the female figure representing Persephone because she brings about the change in the necklace and the ribbon brings about a change in her. The forest turning into a painting is represented with the wooden frame along the right hand side and the back of a canvas at the bottom right hand corner. The clock is the only element that is represented once and that is because in the dream it was the final words and I wanted that to be the main resting point for the eye in the piece. The use of angles in this piece was done to keep the eye moving across the images and the color pallet was chosen to give a feeling of richness and lend to the enchanting and ephemeral quality of the dream.

Time spent to complete project: 5 hours

Total cost of materials: 0
Total cost of piece: $100

Component Parts of the Banjo

Component Parts of the Banjo

Jessie Night

2010

Charcoal on paper

A terrible photograph of this piece, but a lovely piece itself. This drawing uses a few different artistic elements: realism, shading, line, and found images. I found the image of the banjo and knew that it had potential. The fact that music and creativity and insanity and control are so closely linked is mystifying to me, so I explored their connections here. The face is all about control, years of practice and training, while the eye is about the creative insanity that can be achieved while playing an instrument with passion and just letting go. The fact that the picture of the banjo is a more technical diagram makes the loss of control all the more poignant.

Time spent to complete project: 2 hours

Total cost of materials: 0
Total cost of piece: $20

Reluctant

I have been reluctant to post my happenings because of some disheartening news. My boyfriend gave me an ultimatum: make money or we're through. So, I have spent most of my time writing resumes and searching for jobs and filling out applications.

Don't be too disappointed. I will still be trying to sell my hand made items and get into galleries to make money as an artist, but I might have to extend my options to include being a graphic artist and doing other creative things. No luck so far, but I'm not giving up hope.

Positive note: there have been 52 views of my Steam Punk Comb and that means people are at least looking. I'm still optimistic that I will make some money, but enough to live on is still a ways away.

Pants

There was a box full of free stuff last night (I love free, it is my favorite price) and in it was a pair of amazing pajama pants. Unfortunately, the pajama pants are for a size 56 waist and I happen to wear a 34. The cloth was so fantastic that I decided that I would try my hand at remaking them to fit me. The cloth is silky on the outside and like flannel cotton on the inside with a pattern of red and dark red stripes going vertically. Since the stripes on the outside are perfectly aligned, I decided that changing the inside seam was the way to go, which also allows me to raise the crotch height from half way to my knees to my actual crotch.

I started by culling along the seam from the front to the back and along the inseam. Next I started pinning it around me to get a custom fit. That was when I realized that putting in pins where I can't see is quite difficult. After a few moments of thought, I decided to make a body double. This was done by covering my bare skin in saran wrap and then covering the saran wrap in clear packing tape. Doing this on your own is quite difficult, but luckily my boyfriend was there ... to watch and laugh without helping at all. Oh well. Once I had the double cast from my belly button to my knees, I drew a line down my sides where I thought the pants seam should approximately go and my underwear line so that the pants wouldn't be too low. Then I cut off the double and taped it back together (my guidelines were quite helpful in lining everything back up).

I started pinning the cloth to the dummy and getting the fit just right. After pinning everything to the dummy, I realized that I needed to take everything off of the dummy to sew it and proceeded to use the already placed pins as a guide to placing pins that only joined cloth to cloth. Once the piece was free of the dummy, I took it off and made adjustments and put it back on and made more adjustments. Now I have the whole thing almost all pinned together, except that I'm not sure what to do about the legs as the original pants had a taper and the way they are progressing will have the inseam curving around to my shins. I have also done a bit of research on how pants are constructed by examining other pants, and have come to the conclusion that I should do the crotch seams first and the inseams after. For the closure, I have decided to have the front lace up with a flap behind the lacing that buttons on the inside. I'm hoping to start sewing tomorrow.

Improvised Shelves

Today there was sunshine and I went outside and painted and item I had found on the street. I'm not sure what this item originally was, but it is composed of particle board and consists of a large rectangle backing, three boards attached at a 90 degree angle to the back and one board going down the middle. I plan to hang it on my wall as shelves with 6 small compartments. I painted it gold, but the paint is pealing off in a few spots, so I'm going to have to think of a different solution for those spots. Perhaps decoupage? We'll see. I'll post pics once I figure out how to get my camera to sync with my computer.

Portrait of a Drowned Woman

Portrait of a Drowned Woman
Jessie Night
2010
Ink on Paper

Here is a scanned copy of the drawing that I did the other day. The style is neo-pointalism and I love the way dots of ink can be built up to create amazing shadows and gradients. Portrait of a Drowned Woman was drawn by hand and is made of only dots of permanent, fade resistant, water proof, archival ink. The piece measures 6 5/8 inches by 10 inches for the paper, but will measure 8 3/8 inches by 12 inches once framed.

By using points instead of lines, I attempted to create a more surreal vision in this piece. The tendrils of hair that cross the subject's face have graceful curves that speak of the natural grace and curvature typically attributed to women. The hairs cover her features in a way that makes the viewer want to brush them aside, to make her clean and alive by removing the debris that a living person would not allow to remain on their face. There is a portrayal of femininity in inanimate objects (the hair) to convey femininity in the subject, which has a mixed message of gender, as seen in the square jaw and hints of stubble on the cheeks in comparison to the fine eyebrows and prominent upper lip. The angle of the face and neck in addition to the lack of wrinkles gives the sense that there is no tension left from life, all of it has left her and now she is freed of worry and the hardships that life brings. Multiple angles are used to add interest to the piece and the face is off center to give the impression that something is not right, something is off. Overall, this is a wonderful example of juxtaposed ideas all working in harmony within one piece to create dynamic interest: movement versus stillness, darkness versus light, high density versus low density, feminine versus masculine, life versus death.

Total time to complete project: 3 hours
Total cost of materials: ~$5
Total cost of piece: $35

Sick

The last few days have seen me laying in bed in excruciating pain. Sorry for not posting anything here for that time, but I was in no condition to do much of anything. Went to the doctor, but they didn't know why I was in so much pain and referred me to another doctor. Now I'm feeling a bit better (walking, talking, and thinking are now possible), but not at peek performance and it is a labor to do everything. Spent the duration of my illness looking at videos of kitties to keep myself from slipping into depression, knitting, trying to draw, sleeping, and writhing in pain.

I have been knitting a dress of my own design. I had made a swatch to figure out all of my math and began knitting on the 16th of January. Yesterday (February 5th) I looked at the fluted tube I had made thus far and said, "this looks like it might be too big." Whipped out the tape measurer and, low and behold, it was 8 inches too big around. In conclusion, I ripped out the foot and a half of work I had done and started over. Now I have 2 inches of length and (hopefully) the correct dimensions plotted out. I have also decided that the top of the dress will be done in beads, with yarn from the under-bust line down. I will post pics of it as soon as I get a decent length, hopefully by Monday.

I will scan and post the drawings as their own items of interest.

Background

Most Artists (the capital is important because Art is different from art, and I'll get in to that later) have a short biography, so here is mine, all academic-like:

Jessie Night was born in Glen Rock, New Jersey, and spent a great deal of her youth traveling and interacting with family friends who were also creative types. When she was young, her parents noticed a penchant for creativity in Night and she was put into formal art classes. She continued with formal education, as well as informal education, in the arts until she graduated from Pitzer College with a Bachelors of Arts with the major of Studio Art with a minor in Art History. Night had pieces in several group gallery and outdoor exhibition shows and two solo gallery shows. Her pieces often feature found objects, use of shadow, three-dimensionality, and movement. Currently, Night is residing in her home town of San Francisco, returning after living in Germany, Costa Rica, and Southern California for several years. She is currently focusing on the idea of craft as "Art", instead of "art".

Starting Out

Might as well introduce myself. I have chosen the name Jessie Night to sign my art with because I have gone by Jessie for as long as I can remember and I prefer to be nocturnal if at all possible, so that is what I will go by here. Choosing a different name makes me feel like R. Mutt (aka Marcel DuChamp) and I feel that it brings me a tiny step closer to my Ultimate Goal. My Ultimate Goal is to be a full-time artist and be able to support myself that way.

Unfortunately, the pressure is really on because my money is running out and rent is due soon. According to my calculations, I have about 3 months until I can't live off of my savings anymore. Positive side: I have a whole bunch of art supplies and a small camera, so I'm going to try to post my progress here before I put any items up on my internet store, which can be found at jessiebynight.etsy.com for your viewing and buying pleasure. I'm going to post how much I spent on supplies, how long I took to make the pieces, and how much I think I want to sell them for.

Wish me luck on not having to work for The Man, again.